Airbnb,technological change and disruption in Barbadian tourism: a theoretical framework

This paper focuses on how Airbnb, an internet platform which has created the possibility for mass participation in the tourism market, is resulting in class conflict between new entrants and the ‘traditional’ tourism industry. Specifically, it studies how traditional tourism interests in Barbados have responded to Airbnb by seeking to restrict participation in the industry and presents this as a microcosm of broader class transitions and conflicts associated with new technologies. The paper utilises a Marxist theoretical perspective buttressed by Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of ‘creative destruction’ – places emphasis on the process of destroying productive systems to understand how specific industries expand and survive – and Clayton Christensen’s notion of ‘disruptive innovation’ – a process by which a disruptive product transforms a market – for studying how transformations in technology are impacting the tourism industry in Barbados. Its aim is to provide an account of how the process of disruption is unfolding in Barbados by highlighting the reactions of the main hotel lobby group to Airbnb, while also applying the ideas of Marx, Schumpeter and Christensen as useful theoretical lenses through which to examine the unfolding of the process of disruption of settled class and historical control of a dominant economic sector by new technologies.     

农业现代化与国家种业安全

农业现代化的基础是种业现代化。位于农业产业链最上游的种业是农业现代化进程中基础性、战略性核心产业,是保证国家粮食安全的根本。我国必须高度重视农业现代化进程中的种业安全,积极应对种业安全面临的挑战。提升种业竞争力,主体是企业,核心是品种,关键是创新。应加强政策引导,健全法规体系,转变发展方式,着力提升种业科技创新能力、企业竞争能力、供种保障能力和市场监管能力。通过体制机制创新加快构建“育繁推一体化”的商业化育种体系,做大做强民族种业。     

陕西文化旅游产业可持续发展研究

陕西是我国文化旅游资源最富集的省份之一,但文化旅游产业对陕西GDP的贡献并不高,与其他经济发达的兄弟省份还存在着较大的差距。陕西文化旅游产业开发经营过程中暴露出文化内涵挖掘不足、体制建设不到位、创新后劲不足、缺乏长效机制等问题。要实现陕西文化旅游产业的可持续发展,必须加强文化与旅游的深度融合,在创新中延长产业链,使沉寂的历史活过来。     

Economic status,religion, and demography in an Ulster town in the early twentieth century

The paper offers an analysis of the demography of the confessionally-divided and heavily industrialized northern Irish town of Lurgan in the early twentieth century. Its main source is the individual household forms of the Irish population census of 1911. This was the first Irish census to provide household-level data on the number of children born—and the number still surviving—to married couples co-resident at the time of the census. The paper begins by producing standard cross-tabulations of socio-economic status, as represented by literacy, numeracy, occupation, and the labour force participation of married women, by religion. It then presents econometric analyses of female labour force participation, marital fertility, and infant and child mortality. The greater poverty of Catholic households forced a higher proportion of mothers to work outside the home, mainly as unskilled workers in the town's linen mills. The analysis of the marital fertility suggests that confessional affiliation did not influence family size much at this juncture. The analysis of infant and child mortality suggests that religious affiliation was to a significant extent a cloak for living standards and socio-economic advantage.     

China's dualist model on technological catching up: a comparative perspective

Abstract

The central question of this paper is whether China can go beyond simple technological transfer and toward innovation in this age of globalization. By adopting an institutionalist perspective, this paper argues that China has developed a dualist model during its economic transitional period in which the foreign sector has been isolated from domestic firms, while the domestic industrial sectors have also failed to develop organic linkages among themselves to facilitate technological learning and generate innovation. This paper discusses four major institutional arrangements that deeply influence China's technological development – the institutional logic of economic reform, the state's industrial policy, the financial system and the industrial structure. It suggests that, owing to these institutional elements, China has neither developed economies of scale, as compared with the South Korean case, nor has it built up a network-type of economy similar to its Taiwanese counterpart in order to generate the mechanisms needed for technological innovation.     

Nano‐Industry Operationalizations of “Responsibility”: Charting Diversity in the Enactment of Responsibility

The Collingridge dilemma—the problem of reacting to emerging technology either “too early” or “too late”—is one that is readily recognized by developers and promoters of nanotechnologies. One response can be found in the rise of a discourse of “responsible development” in the science and innovation policy landscape. While a number of commentators have discussed the potential of such initiatives, it remains unclear how responsible development is actually being configured “on the ground,” in private sector nanotechnology. This paper addresses this question by analyzing empirical engagements in Europe and the United States in order to map industry operationalizations of “responsibility” in these contexts. We show that a number of different articulations of “responsibility” are present, including as a response to public lack of trust and perceived public pressure, and as the management of risk. We close by relating these findings to the theoretical literature on responsibility, other contemporary accounts of the ways in which responsible development can be operationalized, and the possibilities that these articulations of responsibility may open up.     

贵州产业低碳化发展研究

文章分析了资源环境承载力下贵州高碳产业走低碳化道路的必要性,指出实行产业组织创新、发展循环产业集群是贵州高碳产业发展的必然选择。最后,从加大基础设施建设、营造产业生态氛围、建设不同类型的循环产业集群、加强政府政策扶持四个方面提出了贵州发展循环产业集群的对策建议。     

Process of Cluster Formation in China: A Case Study of a Garment Town

In China industrial clusters consisting of small and medium enterprises have been proliferating in areas where private sectors have successfully developed. This study inquires into the process of forming a new industrial cluster and the roles of local and distant urban traders in the garment industry in China. We found that the local marketplace, where enterprise managers can easily purchase materials from and sell products to local traders, plays a critical role in stimulating the entry of new enterprises in the early stage of cluster development. As a cluster develops, however, entrepreneurial ability in producing high-quality products and marketing them to urban traders plays a more significant role.     

Vice-Premier Li Hsien-Nien gives Banquet in name of Premier Chou En-Lai for Madame Marcos

This article provides empirical light on the debate concerning whether manufacturing firms in China are becoming major innovators. Based on an innovation survey carried out in Jiangsu Province, the article finds that most firms engage in innovative activities but these are mainly of an incremental nature. Radical innovation, as a proportion of sales, is relatively low if compared internationally. Innovation in China is mainly to catch-up and is novel relative to the firm and the domestic market. A small proportion of innovation is new to the world. Intensity and productivity indicators suggest that small, foreign and textile firms are leading innovative efforts. Firms innovate to improve their general competitiveness, including improving product quality and extending market share, obtain income from technology and defend themselves from research and development expenditure by competitors. Innovators value significantly more than non-innovators the range of innovative objectives they seek to achieve. The main obstacles to innovation arise from technical and marketing weaknesses; the perception of these obstacles varies widely between radical innovators and non-innovators. The article concludes that while innovative activities are emerging it will still take some time for China to have a major role in the international division of innovative labour.     

文莱油气产业发展现状与转型评析——基于石油公司竞争力的分析视角

鉴于文莱油气产业的发展特征,本文从石油公司竞争力的分析视角评析文莱油气产业的发展现状与转型。通过采取油气产业本土化、扩张油气下游产业、开放油气上游产业准入以及加强国际合作等措施,文莱油气产业转型与升级取得一定效果,但这与该国政府既定的目标还有较大的距离。如何降低国民经济对油气产业的高度依赖、拓展油气产业的相关产业,仍将是今后一个时期文莱政府需要努力的方向。